Sydney boat tragedy: Tim Klingender public memorial details

Artists, philanthropists, celebrities and socialites will gather together to remember Indigenous art dealer Tim Klingender, who died when his boat capsized off Sydney Heads.

Artists, philanthropists, celebrities and socialites alike will gather at the Bondi Pavilion next Friday afternoon to remember Indigenous art dealer Tim Klingender, who died nine days ago when his boat capsized off Sydney Heads.

Klingender’s wife, one-time Sydney “It” girl Skye McCardle, and the couple’s two teenage daughters, Bay and Gala Jean, are expected to attend the public memorial, along with generations of art lovers wishing to pay tribute to the respected art dealer, a pioneer in his field.

Last week, as McCardle returned to the family’s art-filled Campbell Pde, Bondi, apartment, sources described the much-loved Klingender as the family’s “rock”, and the man who had brought stability to the life of McCardle, a renowned Sydney party girl during the ’90s.

According to sources, McCardle was visiting a health retreat in Nepal when news of her husband’s tragic boating accident broke a week ago.

By the weekend she was home in the family’s rented Bondi apartment consoling the couple’s daughters. One of the daughters is presently preparing to sit her HSC.

Skye McCardle and husband Tim Klingender, who died nine days ago in a boating accident. Picture: Instagram

McCardle is the daughter of Scottish-born merchant banker Alexander “Sandy” McCardle and his glamorous Australian wife Lesley, a pair of urbane globetrotters who met in Hong Kong in the ’60s during Sandy’s tenure as a banker for HSBC.

The entrepreneurial Lesley, a pharmacy graduate from Sydney, had been living in Hong Kong at the time and operating a pharmacy out of the Peninsula Hotel by day while managing a cocktail bar at night.

Skye’s parents Sandy and Lesley McCardle on their wedding day in 1967. Picture: Supplied

Klingender (left) with friend Roger Swainston. Picture: Instagram

“In effect she was giving customers hangovers in the evening and medicines (if not cures) the next morning …” an impressed Sandy wrote in his 2016 tale of worldly adventures, Bank Role.

The couple were married in Kowloon in 1967 before relocating to Melbourne in 1968, where they soon became in-demand dinner guests, having forged strong connections to the top end of town via his finance market introductions, which included future prime minister Billy McMahon and his socialite wife Sonia.

Police faced a tough task searching for Tim Klingender and Andrew Findlay off Sydney Heads. Picture: Monique Harmer

The couple’s two daughters, Alexandra and Skye, arrived in the ’70s, between his postings to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Sydney.

In 1979, the family finally settled in Bellevue Hill.

Lesley’s passion for art — she became an importer of paintings from the UK and bejewelled handicrafts from Thailand — and Sandy’s curiosity soon saw the family become acquainted with their high-profile Victoria Rd neighbour, artist Martin Sharp, in whose bohemian house the young McCardle sisters were very much at home.

Sandy McCardle in later life. Picture: Facebook

Klingender is said to have been captivated upon meeting the vibrant Skye, who was some 13 years his junior.

Friends say he has been a devoted and stabilising influence in his wife’s life.

With so many questions left unanswered in the days after Klingender’s last fishing trip, his friends were last week at pains to stress that Klingender was a keen and experienced angler who frequently took friends out through the Heads on his $100,000 7.8m Brig Eagle inflatable fishing boat.

It was a journey that usually began at Rose Bay Marina.

“He would fish three times a week and had his special spots in the harbour and off the Heads,” a close friend said, making plain his view that the accident that claimed Klingender and his friend Andrew Findlay was a freak incident.

Andrew Findlay also died during the tragedy. Picture: Supplied

“He generally didn’t venture any further than Wedding Cake Island (1km east of Coogee), but he would head out three times a week or thereabouts, often with a friend, in search of kingfish or tuna or whatever was running and then would trawl on the way back in.”

Klingender’s love for fishing is said to have been reinvigorated by WA underwater artist Roger Swainston.

Swainston last week said he was “devastated” by the loss of his “dear friend”.

“I shall treasure the wonderful moments we spent together,” Swainston said.

“We shared a love of the ocean and its denizens — in his Sydney backyard or in my stomping grounds on the Ningaloo Reef.”

Meanwhile, Liz Kemp, the ex-wife of cricketer Brett Lee and ex-partner of Andrew Findlay, the tech businessman who also died in the boating accident, was in Thredbo days prior to her former de facto’s tragic death. Kemp and Findlay together share three children. Kemp had been confiding – prior to Findlay’s death – that the pair were still in dispute over finances despite their split around three years ago.

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